Well, I suppose my semiannual update is slightly overdue. It’s winter here. Again.

The summer blazed by with my brother’s weddings in China and Oregon. Fairbanks enjoyed one of the driest, hottest summer’s on record. We even broke 90 for a day in July. Schmidt made a brief return to the frontier and had enough time to slay a couple dozen salmon and check out my new house. That’s right, I moved again. I counted the other night and I think this is the 13th time I’ve moved in 5 years. Fuck, this is getting old.

Anyway, the new place is awesome and even has running water, which I reckon means that I’ve moved in the early 20th century. I still have an outhouse, but I’m not complaining. I’d rather not deal with a sewage leak in the house at -40F. There are photos on Facebook if you want to get a better look.

I recently had an old friend, Rachel, visit me in Fairbanks. She was on her way to Dutch Harbor to work on the latest season of Deadliest Catch. She’s a real special gal that I met with studying in St. Andrews. We hadn’t seen each other in over two years so it was great to reconnect. I’ll be spending a week visiting her in LA over New Years. Sorry, Eli, this means you missed your window and I’m off the market again. I hope you guys get to meet her some day. If anyone else is in LA area the 31st through the 9th of January, let me know.

As for beer news, I’m still waiting for most of the winter seasonals to arrive. It seems like it’s taking long this years, doesn’t it? I’m more concerned about Powderhound and Jubilale returning than I am about getting my H1N1 vaccine.

I did go to a local Oktoberfest about two months ago and had some really tasty beer and grub. You know what goes better with an Oktoberfest beer better than anything? A scotch egg is what. It’s a hard-boiled egg coated with a sausage/breading mixture and deep-fried… on a stick. A gut bomb for sure, but Drunkard McSloppy is a huge fan.

Coming up to present, I just spent last weekend in Hawai’i for the 3-day Hopu ultimate coed tournament.

I’ve decided that arranging my vacations around Frisbee tournaments is a stellar way to travel. Three days of lodging, food, beer, and fun in paradise all covered for about a $100 fee. That’s hard to beat. And it’s not like any of it was skimped. We had Indian, Thai, and Hawaiian food catered for us and the beer never stopped. If you ever get a chance to get something from the Big Aloha Brewing Company, DRINK IT. DRINK IT ALL. Forget about Kona Brewing, Big Aloha is to Kona as Lacht Neppur in Waitsburg is to Widmer. This is an annual tournament, so if any of you are interested, we should do it next year, maybe hop on a spirit team, and stay longer than just the weekend. There were a couple of Whitties (Matt Stenovec and Molly Smith) down there already, so maybe we could put together an alumni team?

Now I’m settling in for another long Winter. I’ll be stirring in my den around April. Be thinking about coming up next Summer. I may be moving on next Fall…